1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a column for adsorption of blood proteins and a method of removing blood proteins by adsorption.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, much attention has been drawn to plasma exchange therapy which can produce a significant effect in the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and hepatic insufficiency, for instance. Supposedly, this therapy can remove such proteins as antibodies, immunosuppressive factors and albumin-bound metabolites. However, in the plasma exchange therapy, the plasma of patients is discarded and the plasma of healthy donors is supplied in exchange thereof, consequently several liters of plasma is required each time, and therefore treatment of a large number of patients is difficult. Moreover, useful components are also removed simultaneously with unnecessary protein components, which makes the therapy very wasteful.
On the other hand, blood purification therapy using an adsorbent is advantageous in that unnecessary components alone are removed, hence no or only a small amount of substitute fluid is required. However, when activated carbon or porous resins such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Kokai (laid open) Nos. 22,178/1978 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,289), 76,219/1975 (GB Pat. No. 1,465,519) and 148,291/1976 are used in the treatment of the above diseases, satisfactory therapeutic results can hardly be obtained because in the case of activated carbon, proteins are scarcely adsorbed in spite of adsorption of low-molecular-weight substances such as creatinine and uric acid and, in the case of porous resins useful proteins, vitamins and sugars are simultaneously adsorbed in large quantities together with target proteins.
Such organic polymer adsorbents as disclosed in Japanese Patent application Kokai Nos. 80,381/1978, 9,183/1979 and 131,586/1979 also have similar disadvantages and are not suited for the object of the present invention.